News

Severn Trent’s Community Fund is proud to announce that in its first year of funding, it has supported 93 midlands-based community and charity-based projects and awarded over £1.5m, on top of the £1m donated through the company’s Emergency Coronavirus Fund last year.

The supported projects will help see more than 160 acres of environment enhanced, benefits to nearly 600,000 people in the community, as well as over 80 local community spaces improved.

Region wide, the core Community Fund alone has awarded:

· Central Midlands: £116,126, 16 projects 

· Derbyshire: £132,048, to 10 projects 

· Gloucester: £130,129, to 11 projects

 · Leicestershire: £446,905, to 15 projects 

·  Nottinghamshire: £161,766, to 11 projects

 ·  Shropshire: £71,455, to 8 projects

 ·  Staffordshire: £125,461, to 8 projects

 ·  Warwickshire: £297,823, to 11 projects 

·  Worcestershire: £29,230, to 3 projects

Daisy Powell, Community Fund Manager at Severn Trent said: “Despite everything that has gone on this year, we’re so incredibly proud that after our first year of funding, we’ve managed to make such an incredible difference to our customers, communities and environment spanning across our whole region.“It’s been an unbelievably hard year for everyone, and we were determined to continue funding projects, as now more than ever, our communities needed some hope and the opportunity to still make an impact in the community, for the better. These incredible projects that we’ve supported, means they can continue and start to make a difference right now, when we all need it most. We’ve also seen a wonderful mix of funded projects, from creating new community spaces, to museum exhibitions, to unique eco-school projects to even developing inclusive music studios.”

The Severn Trent Community Fund has supported projects that vary in sizes and benefits, all with the aim of improving community wellbeing across the region. 

Two of the biggest projects awarded this year were to the National Space Centre in Leicester, and to Historic Coventry Trust.

Chas Bishop, Chief Executive at the National Space Centre who received £249,860  said, “These have been really difficult times for so many people, but working with the Severn Trent team on such an exciting project gives us plenty to look forward to when we can reopen the doors.  It is great to work with a partner who feels as passionately about the science behind their work as we do, as well as understanding the positive difference their funding can make to support the people living and working within their communities.”

Graham Tait, assistant director at the Historic Coventry Trust who received £198,460, said: “We are really grateful for Severn Trent’s support which allows us to open up a major part of the former railway for public access. It really is a magical place, a stretch of countryside woodland right in the heart of the city.”

The Severn Trent Community Fund launched in 2020, and is aiming to give out more than £10m over the next five years to support community projects across the region. The fund is overseen by an independent Panel, made up of Severn Trent customers, who review applications and who decide where the money goes.

The company also created an Emergency Coronavirus Fund, giving out £1m to community groups and charities who were giving vital support to our communities through the height of the outbreak, as well as those who had struggled financially themselves as a result of the pandemic and needed a helping hand to get back on their feet.

More information on the Severn Trent Community Fund, can be found at stwater.co.uk/communityfund.